Imagine yourself having a PC as small as a shoe box (or even a little smaller than that). Not convincing? Then you haven't encountered a "barebone" PC yet.

Barebones have been around a few years back, and many of us can't believe how this small setup can run as good (or better) that our usual desktops. Luckily, we are able to get a hold of a Shuttle XPC SK21G - a value pc for any workstation.

With barebones, all you have to do is get the compatible processor, memory, drives, or other optional peripherals. The unit itself has its own motherboard embeded with 5.1 audio, UniChrome Pro 3D / 2D 128bits Graphics, LAN, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400 ports.

And the SK21G that was provided to us by PC Shack Marketing (the exclusive distributor of Shuttle XPC) thru PC Gilmore came with an AMD Athlon 64 2800+ 1.80 Ghz, 256 MB of RAM, DVD+RW writer, card reader, and an 80-Gigabyte hard drive. Sweet.

Much sweeter is the Shuttle XPC's optional 3-in-1 Peripheral Kit that came with it. The kit contains a super slim mini keyboard, a silk-lined optical mouse, and a multimedia speaker system. The peripheral Kit is sure to match the SK21G because it also comes with a silver and black motif. The sleek silver matte finish of the case will surely match any office table.

What was lacking in the package is a monitor and OS. But that's not a problem. Even with an old CRT monitor, the XPC SK21G still looked good.

I was told that this unit was already tested in a very harsh environment. Wrapped with plastic and enclosed within a metal box that was heated with a blowtorch while it was running, The XPC SK21G didn't backed down from the challenge. And we were told to give it our best shot.

OK, so we let it run non-stop, without shutting it down, within an office environment that's not so cold. It worked good compared to other desktops where the SK21G was set up. For almost a month, it ran without being turned off (yes, it was always on day and night). And since it only had 256 MB of RAM, I was thinking that this little box would crash due to overheating. After one week, it didn't crash.

Multitasking didn't even stop it from running. We surfed the net, downloaded files, recode videos, burn a dvd-video, listened to mp3s, and made this article all at the same time. The performance of the XPC SK12G somehow slowed down a little and still it didn't crash. I guess it just needed more memory (it can handle a maximum of 2 GB RAM).

Connecting to a network isn't that hard either and file transfers from different PCs are adequately fast. And all you need is a cable to plug into the SK21G's LAN Port.

It's even good to play games with the  XPC SK21G. Although you might need to upgrade on RAM and get a higher video card if you plan to play games with intense graphics (like Call Of Duty 2 for example).

So, my take on the Shuttle XPC SK21G: two enthusiastically thumbs up! This unit assures you not just the same performance as that of traditional desktops, but also gives you more workspace. Although this baby may not be adviseable to techie who often upgrade on peripherals, for the simple user, the Shuttle XPC SK21G is the right decision.